This past spring, I had the great fortune to work with a dozen talented artists from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco on a first-of-its-kind comic collaborative project. With words by me and artwork by them, these guys went from script to finished graphic novel in fifteen weeks.

Under the art direction of Jeremy Saliba (Dynamite's Wheel of Time), these students not only collaborated in a studio environment, but also produced portfolio-worthy work of the highest quality.

The end result is Ultrasylvania - an alternate history of 19th century Europe, where Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, and a certain Egyptian resident don't lurk in the darkness - they're world leaders, struggling to hold their nations together amid assassination plots, romantic betrayals, and political intrigues.

We are initially releasing Ultrasylvania as a webcomic at http://ultrasylvania.com, where it will update with a new page every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. If you want to start from the beginning - and you should - click here.

Thank you, one and all. I feel I should also add that Volume 1 is complete - meaning there won't be any lags because pages aren't done. We're set to run without fail through mid-November, with - ideally - some "special stuff" carrying us through until Volume 2 kicks of in January.

Just a brief aside to say that Jeremy and I will be at San Diego Comic Con this week. No table. No booth. Just catching up with old friends, making some new ones, and promoting Ultrasylvania to a few folks. If you're going to be there too, then maybe drop some contact info into this thread. Or, if you're so inclined, come follow @BrianSchirmer or @Ultrasylvania on The Twitter for fun con updates, pics, and mayhem.

August should be a big month for Ultrasylvania. We had some promising meetings with folk at SDCC, meetings that might bear some sort of public fruit in the coming weeks. We'll also have the ubiquitous Kickstarter campaign to get a trade out in October, just in time for NYCC and the Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco. More about that in a few days over in the Kickstarter thread.

Thanks again to everyone for their interest and support. This is a fun project and it's very rewarding to find it resonating with so many people.

@johnjones & @Rootfireember: Glad you're both enjoying it. Kickstarter is rocking out after only a couple of days. Amazing stuff. One of the biggest thrills, though, is just having all sorts of people discover and dig it. Folks from all around the world. Seriously, my head still cannot grasp it all. Again, very happy you're liking it. Here's hoping we can keep you suitably entertained for the weeks to come!

Down to the last 3.5 hours of our kickstarter. Just sayin'. Overjoyed at the amount of support we've received. The book is coming out in October thanks to these efforts. Thrilled with the number of backers who've also announced they're from WC. Too cool. Thank you all!